Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Product
• A product is anything that can be offered to a market for attention,
acquisition, use or consumption that might satisfy a want or need.
• Products include more than just tangible goods. It also includes
physical objects, services, persons, places, organisations and ideas.
• Services are products that consist of activities, benefits or
satisfactions that are offered for sale that are essentially intangible
and do not result in the ownership of anything.
• Examples are banking, hotel, haircuts and home repair services.
Levels of product
• Product planners need to think about the product on three levels since
each level adds more customer value.
• The three main levels are core product, actual product and the augmented
product.
• Core product: The problem solving services or core benefits that consumers
are really buying when they obtain a product.
• Actual product: A product’s parts, quality level, features, design, brand
name, packaging and other attributes that combine to deliver core product
benefits.
• Augmented product: Additional consumer services and benefits built
around the core and actual products.
Consumer products
• Industrial products are those bought for further processing or for use
in conducting a business.
• Thus the distinction between a consumer product and an industrial
product is based on the purpose for which the product is purchased.
• For example, if a consumer buys a lawnmower for home use, the
lawnmower is a consumer product.
• If the same consumer buys the same lawnmower for use in a
landscaping business, the lawnmower is an industrial product.
• There are three groups of industrial products: materials and parts,
capital items and supplies and services.
Industrial products (Contd)
• Materials and parts are industrial goods that become a part of the
manufacturer’s product completely, through further processing or as
components. They include raw materials and manufactured materials
and parts.
• Raw materials consist of farm products (wheat, cotton, livestock,
fruits, vegetables) and natural products (fish, timber, crude
petroleum, iron ore).
• Manufactured materials and parts include component materials
(iron, yarn, cement, wires) and component parts (small motors, tyres,
castings).
Industrial products (Contd)
• Capital items: Industrial goods that partly enter the finished product, including
installations and accessory equipment.
• Installations consist of buildings (factories, offices) and fixed equipment (generators,
lifts).
• Accessory equipment includes portable factory equipment and tools (hand tools, lift
trucks) and office equipment (fax machines, computers, desks).
• These products do not become part of the finished product. They have a shorter life
than installations and simply aid in the production process.
• Supplies and services: Industrial products that do not enter the finished product at all.
• Supplies include operating supplies (lubricants, paper, pencils) and repair and
maintenance items (paint, nails, brooms).
• Business services include maintenance and repair services (window cleaning, computer
repairs) and business advisory services (legal, management consulting, advertising).
• Such services are usually supplied under contract.
Organisations, persons, places and ideas
• In addition to tangible products and services, in recent years
marketers have broadened the concept of a product to include other
‘marketable entities’ – namely, organisations, persons, places and
ideas.
• Organisation marketing consists of activities undertaken to create,
maintain or change the attitudes and behaviour of target consumers
towards an organisation.
• Both profit and non-profit organisations practise organisation
marketing.
• Business firms sponsor public relations or corporate advertising
campaigns to polish their images.
Organisations, persons, places and ideas
(Contd)
• Person marketing consists of activities undertaken to create, maintain, or change
attitudes or behaviour towards particular people.
• Politicians must be skilful in marketing themselves, their parties and their platforms
to get needed votes and programme support.
• Entertainers and sports figures use marketing to promote their careers and
improve their impact and incomes.
• Professionals such as doctors, lawyers, accountants and architects market
themselves in order to build their reputations and increase business.
• Place marketing involves activities undertaken to create, maintain or change
attitudes or behaviour towards particular places.
• Thus, cities, states, regions and even entire nations compete to attract tourists, new
residents, conventions and company offices and factories.
Organisations, persons, places and ideas
(Contd)
• Ideas can also be marketed since in one sense, all marketing is the
marketing of an idea, whether it be the general idea or the specific idea.
• Ideas, such as public health campaigns to reduce smoking, alcoholism,
drug abuse, child abuse and overeating; environmental campaigns to
promote wilderness protection, clean air and conservation; and other
campaigns such as education reforms, family planning, human rights
and racial equality.
• This area has been called social marketing, which includes the design,
implementation and control of programmes seeking to increase the
acceptability of a social idea, cause or practice among a target group.
Product decisions
• Companies must carefully manage their brands. First, the brand’s positioning must
be continuously communicated to consumers.
• Major brand marketers often spend huge amounts on advertising to create brand
awareness and to build preference and loyalty.
• Such advertising campaigns can help to create name recognition, brand knowledge
and maybe even some brand preference.
• Companies can carry on internal brand building to help employees to understand,
desire and deliver on the brand promise.
• Many companies go even further by training and encouraging their distributors and
dealers to serve their customers well.
• Finally, companies need to periodically audit their brands’ strengths and
weaknesses.